


Lovehearts Drawn in Red Crayon

by sugarsubstitute



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Agender Hanji, Daycare worker!Armin, Daycare worker!Erwin, Daycare worker!Hanji, Daycare worker!Jean, Daycare worker!Levi, Daycare!AU, Drabbles, Everyone else are children, M/M, Maybe it'll have a plot in the future?, kind of a way to practice my writing, rating may change but won't go any higher than mature
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 07:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4170393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarsubstitute/pseuds/sugarsubstitute
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean and Armin met each other when they were first recruted to work at the small daycare with the weird name 'Maria's Sunshine'. The pay's not that good, neither are the work conditions. All three bosses (the only other workers at this place) each have their quirks but at they can put up with them, when they're shown in the best light. The children are rowdy, sometimes difficult to control; not to mention they have the energy of rampaging giants before and after nap time. They'll both be okay though... mostly. These are the drabbles of their work experiences, not necessarily in chronological order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clean Up

**Author's Note:**

> I really need to get back into writing. Like, I do try to write, but I always end up abandoning a fic half-way through writing it or I just don't upload it. And I need to practice, as soon it's Jearmin Week; and I promised myself to write something for each day. So, I will use this as a thing where I can just write whatever I want without necesarily needing to connect anything to a plot. Maybe one day this'll have a plot, but for now I'm just going to use it as writing practice/stress relief and more or less just a feel-good fic with fluff and stuff. Enjoy (?)

Jean huffed as he scrubbed at the carpet. Figures he’d find himself working with the world’s biggest clean-freak as a boss. One who would positively turn green at the sight of mud on the carpet. And for him to work at a day care of all places. A day care! Do you have any idea how frustrating it is seeing a 3 year old smack their paint covered hands all over a clean table, but not being able to yell at them for doing so? That’s more or less Jean every day. He would try to keep the kids from making such a mess, but he is restricted from doing so as Hanji said it would be ‘caging their creativity up’. It’s easy to allow the baby jerks to run riot and paint the whole room blue when you’re not the one that has to scrub the room clean again. 

 

Today, Eren thought it would be _hilarious_ to paint his face green and pretend that he was sick. Connie thought it would be a good idea to make a ‘paint angel’ where he would pour paint on the ground and lie in it to make an imprint. Sasha tried to eat paste again. You should’ve seen Levi’s face when he walked in to see the aftermath of the children’s ‘creativity’ outburst. His face turned grey, like the clay that Bertolt had thrown at the wall, and had to be escorted outside by Erwin to calm down. When Erwin and Hanji came back in they said that they couldn’t _possibly_ help clean up, as Levi was not stable enough to be left alone. In fact, he was so mentally detached he had to have two people to accompany him as he shivered on one of the children’s swings. Hanji waved at him and thanked him for staying and cleaning up by himself, and told him he would get paid for the over time. Jean sighed, nodded, and waved his two bosses off. Bastards.

 

He gripped onto the rag in his hands until his knuckles whitened, scrubbing at Connie’s paint angel vigorously. Come on, you stupid paint stain. He was a mess, hair soapy and pushed back, his face stuck with bits of dried clay, his hands stained with paint, glitter, glue You name it; it’s stuck on his body somewhere. Damn kids. And still this stupid stain won’t come out.

 

“Don’t throw your back out, Jean.” A voice echoed through the dark room. Jean’s ear’s perked up and he looked back, seeing Armin standing by the doorway, keys in his hand and a smirk on his face.

“Oh, A-Armin.. it’s only you.” He breathed.

“Are you okay, Jean? You look terrible.” He said, flipping on the light switch, making Jean’s eyes wince from the sudden flood of light.

“Don’t flatter me.” Jean chuckled, raising his arm to wipe his forehead. “What’re you doing here?” He began, stopping to yawn. “Your shift ended hours ago.”

Armin smiled, walking over to him. “I know, but I left my apartment keys here.” He said, whirling his keys round his finger for Jean to see. “Why are _you_ here? Your shift ended an hour ago. Where are the others?”

“Home. ‘Comforting Levi’ after he freaked out about the mess the kids left. They left me to clean up.” Jean breathed, ringing out the rag in the soapy bucket beside him. “It really sucks.”

“…I’ll help.”

 

Jean whipped his head to face Armin’s genuine stare. “You don’t have to..” he began, even though he feels like throwing him the rag now and run out the classroom now.

“I want to; it’s unfair for you to do this by yourself.” Armin smiled, taking off his jacket and tying it around his waist. 

“But you don’t need to--”

“I want to. Just let me do this for you, Jean.” Armin said, placing his hand on the rag in Jean’s grip. Almost begrudgingly, Jean gave in, and allowed Armin to take the rag from him. Immediately, Armin began scrubbing at the paint stain himself, gripping onto the rag in the same way Jean did, a determined look on the boy’s face. But he still managed to keep his smile.


	2. Fruit Snacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa's been acting strange lately, and Armin wants to try to get her to eat again. Jean might know a way to help.

Mikasa sat with her arms folded, sinking into the softness of her scarf. The others at her snack table munched away at the sliced apples, oranges and bananas. Especially Sasha and Connie, who were attempting to sneak a piece of apple off of her plate. Armin immediately sensed their movement and whipped his head to stare at the two, who then snapped back into their original positions and smiled innocently. Armin sighed, and pushed the plate of fruit back to the young child.

“Come on, Mikasa, please? You won’t even have one _tincey-wincey_ bite?”

She shook her head, pushed the plate back across the table and re-folded her arms. 

 

Armin scratched his head. Mikasa was usually a good child. She never disobeyed, she played nicely with the other children, and she always ate her snacks. But this week, something’s changed. Yesterday, she refused to leave Armin’s side during playtime; and she bit Jean’s arm when he tried to get her to have a nap. He just doesn’t know what’s wrong. Today, she won’t eat her snacks; and her refusal to eat signals red flags in Armin’s head. What’s wrong? What’s she trying to tell them?

 

-

 

“I just don’t know.” Armin sighed, his fingers threading through his hair. He sat with Jean in the staff-room, while their bosses took the kids for story-time.

“Well..” Jean began, pausing to take a sip from his coffee and grimaced at the bitterness. “Perhaps it’s just that she’s going through a rough patch?”

“You think so?” Armin asked, looking up at him.

“Most kids have their spells, don’t they? I know I did.” Jean smirked while tearing open a sugar packet and pouring the contents into his mug.

“Don’t joke about this, Jean.” Armin scolded. “Mikasa doesn’t seem like the type to just suddenly start rebelling. I think there’s more to it.”

Jean raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, that’s the thing.” 

Jean shrugged. “You’re smart, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“Are you even taking this seriously?” Armin questioned as Jean took another sip from his coffee but snapped his eyes straight to meet his as soon as the words had left his mouth.

“Of course I care.” Jean said, placing his cup down. “I’m as exhausted as you are about this. Hence the coffee. Maybe you should take a break on Mikasa. Let Levi or one of the others handle her.”

“No, Jean!” Armin cried, standing up and slamming his hands on the table, making Jean’s coffee spill from the cup. “She only seems to really act up around me and you. She is clingy with me, and she lashes out and bites you. She wants us to do something, or wants us to know something. I’m sorry, but if you don’t care enough, just don’t get involved with this at all.” He growled, storming out of the door and slamming it as he left.

 

Jean blinked, his eyes widened. Armin has never acted so passionately about something before. He smiled, took a sip of coffee; and stared at the door. Must be important then.

 

-

 

“Come on, Mikasa. Try it?” Armin pleaded, trying to meet Mikasa’s eyes but she constantly avoided his gaze.

She shook her head.

“Please?” he tried with a smile.

She shook her head repeatedly.

 

Then, the plate of fruit was lifted up.

“Jean?” Armin said, looking up to see his co-worker holding the plate above him.  
“I’ll be back.” Jean said, walking out of the door. Armin scratched his head, wondering what Jean planned to do.

 

A few minutes later he came back, and placed the plate back down before Mikasa. And hers, as well as Armin’s eyes widened. 

A flower. The pieces of fruit had been carved and positioned to create a flower shape. The apples and orange slices blended together, fashioning the petals and the banana pieces were arranged into a circular shape, resembling the pollen. It was beautiful. Mikasa thought so too. She looked up to Jean and Armin, smiled and then proceeded pick up a banana slice and eat it. 

Armin breathed a sigh of relief, and looked up to Jean from his kneeling position with a smile.

“Thank you, Jean. That was really amazing of you.” Armin smiled as Mikasa continued to eat individual slices of fruit, as if savouring each bite.

Jean gave a toothy smile, and nodded down at the pattern of fruit. “My Mum used to arrange my food in shapes and stuff when I wouldn’t eat. I thought that would work." Armin swore he heard Mikasa say that her mother used to do the same. But then again, she could’ve said anything, as her mouth was full of apple slices.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never done anything like this, but I think I'll be better at writing small, plotless drabbles instead of a big fanfic that will have plotholes the size of actual black holes. It terms of updates, I'm not sure how often each drabble will be posted, but I will try to do it often. Also, I don't want to say 'oh this character has so-and-so disorder' as I not only do not have much experience as to what a person with these mental illnesses/disorders are like; and I do not want to offend anyone by making assumptions. So, all mental illnesses/disorders in the characters will be left unspecified.


End file.
